Sammanfattning
Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) are eligible for palliative care due to the major physical and mental challenges in the final phase of their lives. Anxiety and dyspnoea are two main symptoms with which patients with COPD struggle. The aim of this study is therefore to investigate what nurses perceive as their focus when caring for COPD patients who suffer from anxiety and dyspnoea when hospitalized. The study has a qualitative, phenomenological hermeneutic approach, and data is analyzed by means of Malterud’s four steps method. Four aspects are identified as significant to the nurses’ approach when caring for a patient with COPD:
The nurses describe great responsibility and effort to help the patient - especially in relation to personal, creative nursing to help the patient.
Availability and time to relieve suffering.
Solidarity with the COPD-patient.
Health care personnel providing information about the illness and coping strategies relieve the nurses’ work load. Nursing approaches are characterized as individual, relational, and professional.